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Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Leigh Fought

A readable biographical study of the life of the great abolitionist through his relationships with women, from his grandmother and mother, to his wives, daughter, and female collaborators.

Fleshes out female figures in Douglass's life--including his grandmother Betsey, mother Harriet, wives Anna Murray and Helen Pitts--despite there being few records in their own words.

Highlights Douglass's complicated relationships with family and a range of female activists, friends, admirers, and adversaries.

Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Leigh Fought

Description

In his extensive writings, Frederick Douglass revealed little about his private life. His famous autobiographies present him overcoming unimaginable trials to gain his freedom and establish his identity-all in service to his public role as an abolitionist. But in both the public and domestic spheres, Douglass relied on a complicated array of relationships with women: white and black, slave-mistresses and family, political collaborators and intellectual companions, wives and daughters. And the great man needed them throughout a turbulent life that was never so linear and self-made as he often wished to portray it.

In Women in the World of Frederick Douglass, Leigh Fought illuminates the life of the famed abolitionist off the public stage. She begins with the women he knew during his life as a slave: his mother, from whom he was separated; his grandmother, who raised him; his slave mistresses, including the one who taught him how to read; and his first wife, Anna Murray, a free woman who helped him escape to freedom and managed the household that allowed him to build his career. Fought examines Douglass's varied relationships with white women-including Maria Weston Chapman, Julia Griffiths, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Ottilie Assing--who were crucial to the success of his newspapers, were active in the antislavery and women's movements, and promoted his work nationally and internationally. She also considers Douglass's relationship with his daughter Rosetta, who symbolized her parents' middle class prominence but was caught navigating between their public and private worlds. Late in life, Douglass remarried to a white woman, Helen Pitts, who preserved his papers, home, and legacy for history.

By examining the circle of women around Frederick Douglass, this work brings these figures into sharper focus and reveals a fuller and more complex image of the self-proclaimed "woman's rights man."

Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Leigh Fought

Author Information

Leigh Fought is Associate Professor of History at LeMoyne College. She is the author of Southern Womanhood and Slavery: A Biography of Louisa S. McCord and an editor of The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series Three: Correspondence, Volume 1: 1842-1852.

Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Leigh Fought

Reviews and Awards

Winner of the Mary Kelly Prize of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Winner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in New York history

"While Fought's approach provides insight into the subtleties of Douglass's beliefs and position, more importantly, it reveals the motivations and beliefs of the women who allied themselves with Douglass." -- Julie Roy Jeffrey , Journal of American Ethnic History

"Fought's skill at teasing out Anna Murray Douglass's life and character without any documents written in her own hand is impressive. Anna comes to the reader not the shadowy figure she was to Douglass's acquaintences, but a well-rounded character whose motivations and reactions are grounded in the realities of life as a black woman in the nineteenth century. Overall, this book is not just a well-researched work of history, but an enjoyable read as well." -- Stephanie J. Richmond, H-Net

"[Douglass's] life, argues the author persuasively, was shaped by women... A fresh and insightful perspective on a major historical figure."--Kirkus

"[Frederick Douglass was] one of the age's most passionate male feminists, as Leigh Fought shows in Women in the World of Frederick Douglass, a fresh and surprising account of Douglass's life."--Fergus M. Bordewich, Wall Street Journal

"This is a fascinating account of an impressive man and the equally accomplished women who supported his monumental efforts to secure freedom and rights for blacks and women."--Booklist, Starred Review

"By making its focus those indomitable and sometimes troubling women, Fought has written an engaging book that is compelling, sometimes even fierce, and extremely relevant."--Arts Fuse

"[T]horoughly researched....Although the complex nature of Douglass's relationships with women will never be fully understood, Fought unveils how women were attracted to Douglass and how he equated the servitude of race to that of gender."--John David Smith, The North Carolina Historical Review

"For anyone interested in women's history, this book--well-researched and well-written--is a compelling read."--Civil War News

"Historian Leigh Fought has written a path-breaking, biographical account of Frederick Douglass through the eyes of the women who influenced him. Fought, a skillful researcher and gifted writer, has been working on the book for years and the final product does not disappoint."--Eric J.Chaput, Providence Journal

"Leigh Fought reimagines Douglass's life by placing women at the center of the narrative. She offers vivid portraits of the relatives, friends, and sister activists-enslaved and free, black and white, American and British--who provided Douglass with critical emotional, material, intellectual, and political support. These women helped shape and sustain Douglass throughout his life and ensured his legacy for future generations; their legacy, too, is now ensured in this lively and lucid book." - Nancy A. Hewitt, author of No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism

"In this well-researched and richly textured book, Leigh Fought gives us a fascinating new view into the life and times of one our most famous and revered figures: Frederick Douglass. As he freely acknowledged, women helped make Douglass the man he became. So we, too, are in debt to the women whose stories come so vividly alive in these pages." - Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

"Fought's book takes us into the Douglass households and makes them come alive. Two wives, two intimate European friends, a grandmother, a fascinating daughter, many granddaughters, as well as fictive sisters and other kin all inhabit this work of deep scholarship. Fought is an intrepid researcher and lucid writer with superb judgment. The women and Douglass himself come alive anew through these crucial relationships; the man who expressed so little about his private life is here brought under a bright light, not with prurience, but with analytical understanding and keen sympathy. This is the most important Douglass book in many years." - David W. Blight, Yale University

"With meticulous research and judicious analysis, Leigh Fought resurrects the women who until now lay hidden in the shadows of Frederick Douglass's storied life. Whether one agrees with her or not, this book is well worth the read." - Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition

Finalist, Harriet Tubman Prize of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery

Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Leigh Fought

From Our Blog

Although Frederick Douglass captures his journey into freedom and political influence in his autobiographies, he reveals little about his private life. Douglass's carefully crafted public persona concealed a man whose life was more complicated than he would have liked us to think. Women played key roles in guiding him throughout his turbulent life'from helping him escape slavery to solidifying his role as an abolitionist and suffragist.

In honor of Black History Month in the US and Canada, we've compiled an introduction to Frederick Douglass. Known for his work as an abolitionist and women's rights supporter, Douglass remains one of American history's most influential figures. Despite the fact that Douglass was born into slavery, his accomplishments were astounding and beyond admirable.